He had a good impression of our services from Haiti and he was almost desparate for help from us here in Dili. He is in really urgent need of supplier information as his NGO is about to potentially launch a large rural development programme funded by the EU and had no idea on how to engage with the local marketplace. Surprise – surprise. He just arrived and speaks no relevant language, but knows his bucks can go far on the ground.

Given all my polemics over the past 4 years I think the reason why international actors should engage with the local marketplace is now pretty obvious to the reader of this blog. Despite the hilarious (and I think cogent) rantings of “StuffMalaiLike”.

But when this dude told me what he wanted I was struck by 3 things

how much money he is potentially looking to spend in Timor-Leste, as opposed to Darwin or Surabaya;

how much comes from Darwin and Suryabaya in the end; but I can help accelerate local sourcing as opposed to sending an email to Australia or Indonesia asking for containers to be sent;